


All Night Diner

by teamcalebmalphas



Category: chronicles of nick
Genre: M/M, Naleb, just a bunch of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:58:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5930899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamcalebmalphas/pseuds/teamcalebmalphas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caleb Malphas needs to clear his mind. Little does he know that the distraction of a lifetime is about to walk through the door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Night Diner

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt :All Night Diner at 2 a.m. AU  
> Enjoy!

1: All night diner at two in the morning AU

Caleb Malphas sat contemplating his life. Never a good subject to ponder when you were alone. Well, technically he wasn’t alone since the diner was brimming with people: adults, kids, teens, the elderly, and the staff. Steaming cup of coffee number three sat untouched in front of him. Did he even want it? Maybe. It was late already and he had a pile of homework the size of Jupiter waiting for him (not that he wanted to do it, but it would be nice to  _not_ fail at life.) Home wasn’t the place for him right now, though. Running into the brother who betrayed you at a hundred and ten percent wasn’t something that you got over easily. Memories and their accompanying emotions bubbled up inside him at the sight of his sibling. So much so, that he had gotten in his car and drove off. He just needed to clear his head.

Now, three cups of coffee later, he was still shaken. He glanced at the clock on the back wall. Eleven thirty. And there were still so many people here. Did he miss the memo that said the whole country was to meet at this specific diner? Was there a celebrity coming? He wanted peace and quiet. But perhaps peace and quiet wasn’t what he needed, since all the people were a distraction to him.

“Hey,”

Caleb turned his head suddenly to the source of the voice startled that someone was talking to him. He didn’t know anyone here so he figured he’d be fine to sit and organize his thoughts. Apparently not.

Standing there was a guy about his age with a mop of dark brown hair probably woven by the gods. And his eyes—wow, his eyes—they were so blue that Caleb was convinced the color came directly from the water of the Mediterranean Sea. His fashion sense had room for improvement with an atrociously bright Hawaiian shirt with colorful parrots sitting on palm leaves and dark jeans. He definitely wouldn’t be hard to find in a crowd.

The newcomer was grinning down at him, seeming somewhat nervous. Caleb noticed the pair of dimples at the corners of his mouth. Maybe he was attempting to hide those and wasn’t nervous at all. He wished the guy before him wouldn’t do that.

“Um. Would it be okay if I sat with you? If you’re not sitting with anyone else, that is. It’s kinda crowded and I don’t want to take up a booth or table for just me when a family could use the space.” Caleb stared up at him, watching as his smile quickly faded into a look of horror. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like you were being rude.”

Caleb flashed him a smile this time. “It’s fine. You can sit.” He nodded toward the other side of the booth.

He slid in, taking up a spot in the middle of his seat. Nearly a second later, a waitress swooped in to take his order. “Um…just a milkshake, please. Chocolate. Oh, and an order of fries.” She left and he met Caleb’s curious gaze, mistaking it for an expression spawned by the order. “I really like chocolate milkshakes. A few of my friends tell me it’s an obsession but agree to disagree, you know?” He reached a hand across the table. “Nick. Gautier. Nick Gautier.”

Caleb shook his hand. “Caleb Malphas.”

Nick smiled again. “And why are you alone tonight, Caleb Malphas?”

He cleared his throat, shifting in his seat. Nick took the hint. “Well, I’m here because I was helping a friend of mine move into college. I was on my way home when I needed a break. An overpopulated diner was the thing the universe led me to, I suppose.”

Caleb enjoyed listening to his voice. He enjoyed the emotion in Nick’s words. He sat in silence, watching Nick as he thanked the waitress for his fries and shake, as he ate the whipped cream off the top first and then submerged a fry into the frozen beverage and ate it. Nick was so strangely normal compared to what Caleb was used to seeing and experiencing that he felt a little charmed by him.

Nick glanced up three fries in, the fourth half way to his mouth, when he paused. “What?”

The ice cream beverage dripped onto the table and Nick swiftly at it before a bigger mess could be made. Caleb grinned and handed him a napkin to wipe the puddle of chocolate with. He shook his head. “You—I don’t know anybody like you is all.”

“You hardly know me.” Nick responded.

“Just your idiosyncrasies aren’t something I’ve seen in the people I’ve met.”

“Well, I do strive every day to take conformity by the neck and punch it in the gut.” Nick replied, a wild grin on his face. “I mean, have you seen my wardrobe? And this isn’t even the worst of them.”

Caleb laughed. “You mean to tell me you own more of those shirts?”

Nick swallowed the sip of milkshake he took while Caleb was talking. “Practically my whole wardrobe is Hawaiian shirts. Mom says they keep me out of trouble but I’m a walking, glowing Kick Me sign.”

That got another laugh out of Caleb. They sat in that booth talking for hours. In a twenty-four hour diner, they could. The people around them slowly filed out as the moon crept higher and higher in the sky. Time lost all meaning for them. The wait staff shifted out and didn’t mind their presence either. They kept ordering fries and chocolate milkshakes. Nick got Caleb to try his outrageous way of eating and Caleb was surprised to find that he enjoyed chocolate shake covered fries.

Sleep eluded them, not that they minded. At first, Nick talked the most, what with him being more open to sharing his stories. Caleb’s storytelling built slowly. He started with the impersonal and worked his way to the personal. He even picked up on a small bit of flirting here and there. He realized he was beginning to really like Nick.

This stranger, who became less and less of a stranger the more the hands on the clock spun, took his mind off of why he ended up at this diner in the first place. Nick was new and different. He had a certain confidence that wasn’t always there. Caleb could sense it: Nick had been kicked to the ground more often than not and he had the stories to prove it. He felt sorry for the one sitting across from him though he knew he shouldn’t. Nick spoke like didn’t want anybody’s pity and he probably didn’t.

Nick raised his hand over his head, stretching, and then he glanced at the clock. “Oh wow. Two a.m. I should probably get going.”

Caleb’s heart sank at the sound of those words but he kept up a front. “I’ll walk out with you.” He left a tip at the table, paying at the counter before following Nick out the door to the parking lot.

“You really didn’t have to pay considering I’m the reason for ninety percent of that bill.” Nick commented.

“It’s nothing.” Caleb shrugged.

The parking lot was mostly empty. His car was closer to the diner. A few more cars sat undisturbed. He followed Nick to the far end of the lot where a black Jag XK-R waited.

“This is yours?” Nick’s story’s about living dirt poor a good portion of his life didn’t match with the luxury vehicle he had the keys to.

“Yes. Well, technically not yet. It’s my boss’s but he told me he’s going to gift it to me for my eighteenth birthday. So yes, but not yet.”

“If he’s not giving it to you until your eighteenth birthday then why are you driving it?”

“He lets me drive it around two days a week so I can get used to it. Otherwise I’m on my feet.”

The conversation fell silent for a moment before Caleb—unable to stop himself—said, “Will I get to see you again?”

Nick grinned at him, half his mouth quirked up, flashing a single dimple at Caleb. “Depends. Are you spoken for?”

“No.”

Nick banished any space between them, carefully bringing his lips to meet Caleb’s. His heart thundered in his chest. He hadn’t been kissed in a long time and he’d forgotten how breathtaking it was.

And it was over sooner than Caleb would’ve liked.

Nick opened the driver’s door. “Meet me here, same booth, two a.m., two days from now.”

“Two _days_?” Caleb argued.

Nick winked at him. “Save me a seat.” He said before shutting the door and driving off.

Caleb didn’t know how he was going to make it two days without seeing Nick, but he did know that Nick was at the end of those two days, so he was determined to make it until then.

For Nick.


End file.
